Ubuntu 11.04 gets touchscreen-friendly “love handles”

It’s not always easy using an operating system built for desktop and notebook computers on a tablet. That’s one of the reasons the Apple iPad has been such a success — the operating system was built from the ground up for touch navigation. But the folks at Canonical are doing their best to add touch-friendly features to Ubuntu Linux. One of the latest updates? Love Handles.

The name might sound a bit silly, but Love Handles make it much easier to resize or move windows when using Ubuntu on a tablet or other touchscreen device. You can also use Love Handles with a multitouch trackpad.

Basically you trigger the Love Handles and instead of dragging a corner of the window you want to resize, you can tap on the arrows on the top, bottom, left or right, or grab the corner. This lets you expand or shrink the window in any number of ways. You can also tap the center to move the entire window.

Love Handles are a plugin for the Compiz desktop effects.

You can check out Love Handles in action after the break, thanks to a video from OMG Ubuntu.

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Astronaut Mark: I don’t care how many “perks”, including a last minute force-fit of the 2.6.38 kernel, you try and cram into 11.04; you’ve already lost a significant number of the very people who made you and Ubuntu famous. It’s obvious that your intended audience is tired of your egotistical “management”–to be a bit too charitable–style. YOU are neither an OS designer nor an OS design manager; true OS designers and managers first and foremost listen to what their customers say and want. The people over at Mint are probably dancing in the aisles right now, and are, perhaps, the only SIGNIFICANT group eagerly awaiting your latest ego trip. Oh, and it’s a known psychological fact that “benevolent dictators” aren’t; this is a classical case of an oxymoron. If you want to stand any chance of turning Ubuntu around, first lose that self-aggrandizing appellation, and the mental set which accompanies… Read more »

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7 years ago

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Goran Crnkovic

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You have the right to your beliefs. As I have the right to believe that Ubuntu and Mark Shuttleworth are doing great things. I respect your opinion though and know that there is nothing I could say here that I could change it. So thank you for your opinion but it is far from the only or majority one in the open source community.

Anyway… Love handles look like they could be great on touch screen devices. But Unity/Ubuntu overall still has some sharp edges that need working out especially on touch devices.

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7 years ago

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jonobacon

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Wow you seem to know a lot about how to build an Operating System, how to work with the community, how to manage engineering and bring innovation to the Linux desktop. Clearly we are doing it all wrong…;-)

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7 years ago

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tfosorcim

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Point (mine) made.
(Your last statement DOES indicate that you may be getting marginally smarter. At least your deductive capabilities may be somewhat functional: I AM an OS designer; am an engineering manager; and have an MSEE–with a minor in Solid State Physics– in Electrical and Computer Engineering from one of the world’s premiere scientific and engineering institutions. I didn’t realize (sic) (we colonials never did learn how to spell) that it showed). By the way, you need to work on your punctuation skills.
Oh, and exactly what institution of higher learning did you graduate from, and with what degree(s)?
Warmest regards…

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7 years ago

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the rooster

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lol, u r really sick :), hate it or love it, there is nothing u can do to about it!

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7 years ago

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Brayanhabid

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show us an OS of your own, and then we’ll see what you know, and whether you have the right to criticize other people’s OS’s

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6 years ago

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Goldfish

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